I Have Seen The Future: A Tour of the 1939 New York World's Fair is a musical documentary that guides you through one of the most remarkable and visually stunning international events in American history. Running for two seasons from April 1939 to October 1940, the fair was delicately counterpoised between the easing of the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II, an optimistic, yet fragile peak in American history.
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The film is comprised entirely of footage shot in 1939 on 16mm Kodachrome color film by amateur Philip Medicus, with just a handheld Magazine Cine-Kodak camera.
The tour is set to an original score composed and performed by musician and filmmaker Darby Cicci (The Antlers, School of Night). He restored a 1937 Zenith tube radio, and re-recorded the entire score through the 80-year-old paper speaker to closely capture the original sound of the era.
The film is edited in chronological and geographic order, and give the audience a rare opportunity to step back in time and journey through the Fair just as a visitor would have experienced the architecture, exhibits, art, and culture in 1939. It is a collaboration across 80 years, from a distant point in it's own future.
Original intertitles by artist Tracy Maurice www.tracymaurice.com
Also endless love for the Art Deco Society of New York for premiering the film in NYC artdeco.org/
The film is dedicated to the memory of my grandma Catherine Smith, from Brooklyn, who performed at the Court of Flame cafe on the fairgrounds when she was 16 years old. She loved the film, and I hope you do too. xo
Original score written, performed, produced, and recorded by Darby Cicci at Minus Green Lab, Brooklyn, NY
(c) 2019 Dead Birds Fly in Reverse